SS #48: Someone Stole My Socrates

This episode, Brandy and Mystie discuss the Socratic Method. Is it really classical? Is it progressive? Does it have anything to do with Socrates? Has he been kidnapped and, if so, it is right to hunt him down and steal him back?? This conversation was great fun for us. We think you’ll enjoy it, too!

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15 Responses

Yup. You can start with Kern’s article linked above, which also links to Wikipedia, but the best source is the original – seeing how those dialogues actually worked to provoke thought, wonder, and learning.

Okay, I do appreciate the “read Plato to understand the Socratic Method” idea … but I am also one of those people realizing how much I *don’t* know about Classical Education while I try to muddle myself and my children through it. My initial reading of Meno left me flustered, I expected/hoped to be able to just *absorb* the method and the wisdom, but instead sometimes Socrates seemed condescending and I realized I’m not even sure how to read it, if that makes sense. In trying to learn to educate my children in a method I was not brought up with, myself, I feel like I am floundering. And with “Socratic” applied to so many terms (dialog, questions, method, duos, circles, discussions) I start to think I am barely treading water trying to swim with the big kids.

You aren’t the only one who raised this sort of question, Kim, and shortly after the episode, we found a homeschool mom named Renee who has thought about this quite a bit. She gave Mystie and I a reading assignment (Gorgias) and next season we’re going to have her on the show to discuss Socratic discussion again, this time in light of a real Socratic dialog … I think it’s going to be super helpful for all of us!

Ok, it’s admittedly a little over the top that I can quote that scene from memory but now I will not be able to read Wikipedia without hearing “That’s a fact!” in a Scottish accent again. Sincere thanks for that, Brandy. 🙂

Hahahaha! I love that you have such an accurate memory of that scene! One of my roommates in college had the DVD and we watched it regularly. I was just telling my husband that I need to watch it again — it’s been too long.

You will love this — to this day, when one of the children stands between my husband and the screen during a football game, he yells “HEED!” And then mumbles, “It’s got its own weather system,” in his best attempt at a Scottish accent.